Using XPAN lenses on the Fuji GFX 50s

I have been in a bit of a dilemma since purchasing the Fujifilm GFX 50s. The choice of lenses has been so far very limited, and the price of those lenses is in my mind unreasonably expensive. I believe Fuji are strongly discounting the cost of the body to gain market share while pushing for profit out of subsequent lens sales – a very long-standing dinosaur-like strategy in the camera industry. However I am frankly not prepared to shell out £2000 or more for a single prime lens any more, I’ve been down that road in years gone by when medium format digital was incredibly niche but I’m not going back there again and I feel that Fuji need to modernise their thinking.

So with all that in mind I have been experimenting with lens adapters and other accessories to widen the choice of lenses available for the GFX 50s. Kipon are a prolific manufacturer of lens adapters and have produced and wide range of high quality but low cost adapters to fit the GFX 50s. I have been experimenting with Mamiya medium format lenses both via a Kipon adapter and also via the incredibly useful Cambo Actus view camera accessory. I have also found that a surprising number of full frame lenses work perfectly well on the GFX 50s.

But the subject if this post is XPAN: that marvellous panoramic film camera manufactured by Fujifilm for Hasselblad and marketed both as the Hasselblad Xpan and the Fujifilm TX.

There are three Xpan lenses: 30mm, 45mm and 90mm. These lenses are manufactured by Fuji, they are diminutive in size but incredibly sharp and contrasty thanks to the fact that the Xpan camera is a rangefinder and the lens designs are not compromised by mirror boxes and retrofocus requirements. Because they are designed to shoot panoramic images on 35mm film, the Xpan lenses have an image circle of approximately 70mm and so will easily cover the 44x33mm sensor in the GFX 50s.

The images in this post were all shot with the 30mm lens which is an absolute dream of an anamorphic wide angle. It is the most expensive of the Xpan lenses that you will find in the second-hand market thanks to its legendary reputation and is likely to cost you up to three times the price of either the 45mm or 90mm. That said, if you are careful you should be able to pick up all three lenses for around £2,500 which is the approximate cost of one of Fuji’s GF 120mm or 23mm prime lenses by themselves.